THE EIGHTH CONCESSION by Ralph Bice

From Wednesday, January 18, 1978

I have been thinking about writing a story on this particular part of Bethune Township but there are so few people left who lived there years ago that it was difficult to come up with names of the early settlers and who was there first. As far as I could find out there is just one person left who was born in Bethune Township before the turn of the century and still lives not too far away. Mrs. Val Thompson who lives near Huntsville was born Bertha Gilchrist on a farm in that concession well before 1900.

I managed to have a chat with her at the Huntsville Fall Fair and she filled me in with names and places I did not have. Then her sister-in-law, Mrs. Charles Gilchrist (nee Minnie Pelling) helped me out with a bit more.

My family came to Kearney in February 1911 but even at that date there were empty buildings as some had moved away. Rev. John Lawson came to Canada from England looking for a place to call his own. The family first were on a plot of land near Sand Lake but he did not like clearing land where the pine trees would not burn. He was told of an abandoned cabin and went to see. The walls were standing but the previous inhabitants had taken the roof lumber with them. They moved there and stayed. I do not think Mr. Lawson did any preaching in Canada but his wife was a great worker for the Sunday School and it is a matter of record that she was the Sunday School Superintendent for many years. When the church was where the cemetery now is she walked many times carrying the kindling to try to have the building warm when the people arrived. In my time the church has been in Kearney. John Lawson, son of Tillson Lawson, still lives on the same farm his grandfather settled just about 90 years ago.

A bit east was the Travis farm. Their buildings just where the fifth side road meets the eighth concession. This family came from England but had lived in Toronto for some time. They built the first tourist hotel in the area just after the turn of the century. Quite a large building with a lovely view though too close to the lake. I have been inside the place only a few times. The builders had served their apprenticeship in the old country and that meant they were experts. It was the floor that I remembered as the workmanship is out of this world. I was told recently that in the attic the rafters are fitted just as neat. Across the road was another house and I believe Harry Travis, the son, lived there. Harry Travis later bought the O’Brien farm and moved to Kearney. He served on many groups, council and was Mayor on several occasions. 

Bit further east was the original Groom farm. The Groom’s had arrived on the same train with the Lawson’s, just a supply train, as the railroad was still under construction. I can remember a fine pine log house. I was told the logs were hewed by Mac Kippep, supposedly the best axe man in the area. There must have been another family close for on the side hill is a grave, the last resting place of a young girl who took sick and was dead before medical help could get there. The old Groom house was occupied for years by Charlie Gilchrist who later built a new house and his wife still lives there.

Then just a short distance if you forget the hill is the old Dunk farm. Mr. Dunk senior has been gone for many years, then his son lived there and later Bert Gilchrist.

Just a bit further along was the Week’s farm believe they too were old country people but Mr. Weeks built chimneys in Kearney that are still in use. Then there was the Humphrey farm. At least they were living there as far back as I can recall. They were fairly newcomers. The first owners were named Moore and he had a small blacksmith shop. Apparently he was a rather unfriendly person and no one worried when he left the area. Then a young man named Larrat had a cabin a ways back from the road but he did not stay long. Then the Gilchrist farm. Believe this had once been the Allchin farm and this family moved west. The Gilchrists first lived in the Devlin farm where Mrs. Thompson was born. Then there was the Neely farm and the McFeelies. These two families had moved away when I first knew anything about this part of the world.

The Allchins had first lived on the tenth, near Ryans Lake. One of the boys was shot, not in a hunting accident but when he was pulling his rifle out of the canoe. The first such tragedy in the area.

Charlie Gilchrist and I were very close chums away back and I visited his house many times. His mother treated me like I was one of the family. I did my first deer hunting there in 1915 and it was there I shot my first deer. We did get three deer and perhaps because we were 15 and hungry the meals of roast venison were just about perfect. Then there was the new barn which Charlie and his father had torn down being sure to mark all the parts even the roofing boards. A bee put the walls up and the roof on and it was left to Charlie and me to put on the gable ends which were also marked. Only trouble we started at the side and by the time we got to where the opening had been left to throw in the hay we were more than a foot out of line. And we did not change it.

I should have mentioned the Lawson girls. One, Martha, became Mrs. John Phoenix and her daughter still lives in Kearney. One was a nurse and had nursed with Dr. Hart in Huntsville. One died in Novar, well over 90. Mrs. Phoenix was a great story teller and remembered so many things that had happened many years ago. She knew the birthday of almost everyone younger than she was in the whole area.

I no doubt missed some names but I did want to jot down some things about a spot that has so many memories of almost 65 years.